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Business

The owners of Evergreen Fire Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden are retiring and closing their business.

The gallery in the adobe buildings on Evergreen Parkway, known for its Western-themed art, the Evergreen Angel pendants and events such as Weekend in the West, will close for good on Saturday.

“We tried to find somebody to take over the gallery, but it didn’t work out,” said Barbara Hadley, who has owned the gallery with her husband, Phil Shanley, since 2008. “Everybody has been very supportive.”

Four-year-old Maya Walker doesn’t quite understand that her name is famous after her parents named Maya’s Cantina and Grill after her.

Maya didn’t have much to say about her namesake in downtown Evergreen, which had its grand opening this past weekend. However, she likes to visit her dad, chef Kyle Walker, in the kitchen after preschool.

Never far behind Maya is her younger sister, Millie, 2. Mom Megan Walker is a second-grade teacher at Marshdale Elementary, and Kyle is also a volunteer firefighter with Evergreen Fire/Rescue.

The new owner of the Tin Star Café on the boardwalk in downtown Evergreen will renovate the place in February and early March, and the new shop will open with the moniker Salt and Meat.

“We will make our own meats and cheeses,” owner Nate Heartman said. “We will sell local products as well, but the idea is that we want everything to be made in-house, such as marinade spice mixes. It’ll be a one-stop shop.”

For starters, it formerly was the Mountain Peace Boutique — a resale shop owned and operated by PeaceWorks Inc. for the benefit of individuals using the Mountain Peace Shelter. After PeaceWorks decided to close the boutique in April, half a dozen volunteer managers pooled their resources and talents to re-launch the shop under a new name and new ownership in July.

The new year will bring a new office for the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber is moving to the Stone House on Evergreen Parkway in Bergen Park in late January.

Chamber president Betsy Hays says the new space, with its prominent signage, will make the chamber more visible to visitors as they drive into Evergreen from Interstate 70 — though the signage will not be overbearing, as the chamber tries to be sensitive to its residential neighbors.

The shop in the log cabin behind The Den restaurant in Marshdale has a bit of everything — and more.

Marie St. Denis recently opened the shop as a place for local residents or those driving between Evergreen and Conifer to conveniently stop to grab eggs, milk or a quick dinner. Plus, there are locally produced candles, soaps and other items.

During a trip up Interstate 70 on any summer weekend, an observant motorist with a list of the 50 states could cross off half the names before reaching the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Vehicles bearing license plates from across the country — from Texas to Alaska and Indiana to California — make their way up the mountains alongside Denver area residents looking to escape the heat and the city.

Kittredge’s Ambary Gardens has made great strides in the past 18 months, expanding from a single greenhouse into a full-scale retail operation with plans for further collaboration and expansion.

The business has been selling various hemp-based products, such as salves and tinctures, that are high in cannabidiol and have little to no tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Users of such high-CBD products have ailments ranging from migraines and asthma to rheumatism and glaucoma.

This week’s Business Beat looks at Evergreen’s changing restaurant scene. We look at The Den in Marshdale expanding, the Muddy Buck under new ownership, and Bistro Colorado changing its tipping policy.

Don’t forget the Wonderland Café in Where the Books Go, which opened in July and was profiled in Business Beat last month.